Premier Farnell has seen its business return to year-on-year quarterly growth as the component distribution sector turns the corner.
This is the latest set of figures to tell us that the distribution sector is coming out of recession.
"Group sales and underlying group operating profit both returned to year on year growth during the fourth quarter,” said Harriet Green, Premier Farnell’s group chief executive.
Last month, a survey by Electronics Weekly of managers in the distribution sector recorded an almost universal increase in confidence and new ordering levels as the economy emerges from recession.
See: Online sales drive business recovery
Sales at Arrow were up in the last three months of the year, while RS Components reported a “sharp improvement” in sales in the month since Christmas.
Premier Farnell has cemented the upward trend reporting that sales per day gained momentum throughout the quarter, with overall revenue in January up 9.5%.
“As we moved into the first quarter, which is seasonally our strongest, this performance accelerated, with Group sales growing over 15% in February on the prior year,” said Green.
Sales of £207.5m in Q4 were 6% up on last year.
Overall the 2009 figures reflected the depth of the downturn with sales of £795.3m down 10% on 2008/9. Full year operating profit tumbled 26% to £71.4m.
But now the talk is of recovery and operating profit in Q4 was up 23%.
Green said the aim was to “drive our performance towards reaching the level of sales we saw before entering the downturn, while recognising the limited visibility inherent in our business”.
Sales over the Internet in the core components business grew year-on-year by 28.9% in Q4.
As a result ecommerce accounts for 41.5% of total sales. In Europe the proportion is higher at 58.8% of sales.
Farnell’s European business also returned to year-on-year sales growth, up 11.4% in the quarter.